With great pride we would like to put on record that the work of our colleague and friend Harsh Mander, for the last several years, both inside the Government as a civil servant, as well as outside the Government as a policy maker, researcher and activist has been, that of promoting in the most ethical way, non-violent ways of ensuring justice to survivors of violence due to their gender, class, caste, religious group, ethnicity or nationality. The most prominent violence which Harsh’s work has highlighted has been the one committed on the vulnerable by both the State and Society due to their invisibility, whether they be the homeless, the destitute, the old or street people.

It is shocking that the “aspirant PM” Narendra Modi has been targetting Harsh for the last week calling him a Maoist. Thus trying to belittle his work, raising doubts about him and villifying his name in public. This targetting of individuals and organisations and vilifying them is not new, earlier too he had spewed venom against Syeda Hammed, Teesta Setalvad and Shabnam Hashni amongst the several and now the new whipping boys are Harsh Mander and Dr. Binayak Sen.

The hiring of Padma, a single poor woman, estranged from her husband, as a care giver in one of the 45 Institutions for street and abandoned children run by Aman Biradari, is being twisted and used by Modi to prove that Harsh is a Maoist sympathiser. The latest spin that Harsh Mander is in any way involved with the Maoists and that he may have had anything to do at all with the abduction of Vineel Krishna, the then District Collector of Malkangiri is patently false, concocted and the figment of a very perverted imagination.

This absolutely absurd claim and false connection being made by Modi only exposes his brand of politics which is seeped, in his parent organisation the RSS from where Mr. Modi has learnt to distort facts and spread hate. His anger against Harsh also clearly goes back to the latter’s work in Gujarat struggling over ten years to ensure justice to those affected by the 2002 communal genocide. It maybe recalled that Harsh had left the prestigious civil services in 2002 and plunged himself in Gujarat and other parts of India in order to quell communal fire from spreading and working towards justice and rehabilitation of the survivors.

It goes without saying that this vilification of Harsh for partisan electoral politics be stopped. It is vital for all to understand that the perils of allowing such politics to take centre stage where democratic rights of people are attacked, impacting their right to work as they choose, amounts to an attack on the very basis of our country’s plural existence. We hope that such politics will not be promoted by political parties and the media so that people can continue to work freely for public good.

Harsh is one person who’s relentless passion and commitment is a constant encouragement, in the midst of all the insanity around us. That he can be vilified in this manner is unthinkable.
Pervin Varma
Citizens for Peace (CFP)

There are few in the country who can stand up and be counted as a true democratic citizen of the country than Harsh. His passion and belief in a just, equitable and humane society and a complete willingness to act on these ideals is quite unmatched. Ravi

Any one who has come across Harsh Mander,s work cannot afford to label him as an extremist of any brand what so ever and the statement above is fully endorsed Harsh is one among the few leading lghts who have made a first hand account of the pulse of the worst affected in the society irrespective of gender or any other considerations

I have no hesitation to endorse Harsh’s great work……to be vilified in this manner by Naredara Modi is very sad and in bad taste – Modi’s brand of politics is not good for us nor the country. Lyndon Saldanha

Why these great persons do not protest against corporate tyranny? Don’t they know that the nexus between corrupt politicians, hang dog media & tyrant corporate is the biggest menace before common Indians.
Tapas